If you sell into both the United States and the European Union, you have probably been handed a confusing pile of acronyms: ADA, Section 508, WCAG, the EAA, EN 301 549. They are not competing standards you must choose between. They are laws and technical specs operating at different layers, and one shared rulebook, WCAG, quietly ties almost all of them together.
This guide lays out ADA vs WCAG vs EAA in plain terms: what each one actually is, who it legally binds, and why building your site to WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA satisfies the technical core of nearly all of them at once. If you want to see where you stand right now, you can run a free scan before reading further.
The quick mental model: laws on top, WCAG underneath
The cleanest way to think about this is two layers. The top layer is law — the ADA, Section 508, and the European Accessibility Act. These say *you must be accessible* and define who is on the hook and what happens if you are not. The bottom layer is the technical yardstick that measures whether you actually are accessible. For the web, that yardstick is almost always WCAG.
The ADA and the EAA rarely contain pixel-level rules about contrast ratios or keyboard focus. Instead they point — directly or through case law and referenced standards — at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. So the practical question is rarely "ADA or WCAG or EAA?" It is "which laws apply to me, and have I met the WCAG version each one expects?"
WCAG: the shared technical standard
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is published by the W3C, not a government. It is the engineering spec the legal world borrows. It is organised around four principles, often abbreviated POUR: content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Each principle breaks down into testable success criteria at three levels — A, AA, and AAA.
Level A and AA together form the bar that matters for compliance. They include concrete, checkable rules: normal text needs a contrast ratio of 4.5:1, while large text (18pt, or 14pt bold) and UI components and meaningful graphics need 3:1 (success criteria 1.4.3 and 1.4.11). Every form control needs a label, every image a text alternative, and every interactive element must work from the keyboard alone. The version referenced by EU law is WCAG 2.2.
Because WCAG is concrete and testable, it is what an automated checker or a manual auditor measures against. Fix the contrast, labelling, and keyboard issues it defines, and you are doing the same work that satisfies the ADA, Section 508, and the EAA simultaneously.
ADA: the broad US civil-rights law
The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) is a civil-rights statute. Title III covers "places of public accommodation" — businesses open to the public. US courts have increasingly treated commercial websites and apps as falling under Title III, which is why a private company can be sued over an inaccessible checkout even though the ADA predates the modern web and names no specific technical standard.
That silence is the catch. The ADA does not say "meet WCAG 2.1 AA" in its text. But settlements, Department of Justice guidance, and the weight of litigation have made WCAG Level AA the de facto standard courts and plaintiffs expect. So a US business defends itself against ADA claims by conforming to WCAG — the same target the EAA names explicitly.
Section 508: the US government's procurement rule
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is narrower than the ADA. It binds US federal agencies and, critically, anyone selling ICT — websites, software, documents — to the federal government. If you are a SaaS vendor bidding on a government contract, Section 508 is your gatekeeper.
Section 508 is more precise than the ADA because its current standards incorporate WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA by reference for web content. It is the clearest US example of law pointing directly at WCAG. Practically, if you build to WCAG 2.2 AA you comfortably clear the WCAG 2.0 AA bar Section 508 sets, since 2.2 builds on the same earlier success criteria.
EAA and EN 301 549: the EU's binding deadline
The European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) is the EU counterpart, and its requirements apply from 28 June 2025. It covers a defined list of products and services sold in the EU — e-commerce, banking, e-books, ticketing, transport services, and consumer-facing software among them. Unlike the ADA, it comes with a hard date and a named technical baseline.
That baseline is WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA, referenced through the European standard EN 301 549. EN 301 549 is the bridge: the EAA is the law, EN 301 549 is the harmonised standard it points to, and WCAG is what EN 301 549 incorporates for web content. Meet WCAG 2.2 A and AA and you have met the web core of EN 301 549, and therefore the EAA.
One important exemption: microenterprises that provide services — fewer than 10 staff *and* under €2,000,000 annual turnover — are largely exempt for those services. Larger businesses, and most product manufacturers, are not. Penalties are set nationally, so fines vary by member state and can reach tens of thousands of euros, alongside orders to withdraw a non-compliant service. See the European Accessibility Act guide for the full scope and sector breakdowns.
What this means in practice for a US/EU business
The reassuring takeaway from ADA vs WCAG vs EAA is that you are not maintaining four separate compliance programmes. You maintain one accessible product, measured by WCAG, and point different stakeholders at the version each law expects.
- Target WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA. It is the EAA's named baseline and covers the WCAG 2.0 AA that Section 508 requires, so it clears the strictest standard you face.
- Treat the ADA as a litigation risk, not a checklist. There is no "ADA certificate" — conforming to WCAG AA and documenting it is your defence.
- Publish an accessibility statement. The EAA expects one, and it signals good faith in US disputes.
- Build accessibility into your release process, not a one-off audit. Re-test whenever you ship significant front-end changes.
The fastest first step is to find out which WCAG criteria your site currently fails. A scan flags the contrast, labelling, and keyboard issues that drive both EAA non-conformance and ADA complaints — the same fixes, counted once.